The living flame of love

Since this Introduction was written the first volume of the critical Spanish edition, con taining a preliminary essay, the life of St. The spiritual transcends the sensual, and he speaks but indifferently of the mind of the spirit who has not a spiritual mind himself. I have, therefore, in consideration of my own defects, put off this matter until now.

But now that our Lord seems in some way to have opened to me the way of knowledge herein, and to have given me some fervour of spirit, I have resolved to enter on the subject. I know too well that of myself I can say nothing to the purpose on any subject, how much less then on a matter of such depth and substance as this! What is mine here will be nothing but defects and errors, and I therefore submit the whole to the better judgment and discretion of our Holy Mother the Catholic Roman Church, under whose guidance no one goeth astray.

Poet Seers » The Living Flame Of Love

There is nothing strange in the fact that God bestows favours so great and so wonderful upon those souls whom He is pleased to comfort. For if we consider that it is God Himself as God, and with infinite love and goodness, Who bestows them ; and this being the case, they will not seem unreasonable, for He hath said Himself that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost will come to him that loves Him, and will dwell in him.

In the former stanzas I spoke of the highest degree of perfection to which it is possible to attain in this life, transformation in God ; t yet these, the explanation of which I now propose to undertake, speak of that love still more perfect and complete in the same state of transformation. OF LOVE 3 such, still with time and habits of devotion, the soul is more perfected and grounded in it.

Thus, when a log of wood is set on fire, and when it is transformed into fire and united with it, the longer it burns and the hotter the fire, the more it glows until sparks and flames are emitted from it. So too the soul and this is the subject of these stanzas when transformed, and glowing interiorly in the fire of love, is not only united with the divine fire, but becomes a living flame, and itself conscious of it. The soul speaks of this with an intimate delicious sweetness of love, burning in its own flame, dwelling upon the various marvellous effects wrought within it.

These effects I now proceed to describe, following the same method ; that is, I shall first transcribe the four stanzas, then each separately, and finally each line by itself as I explain them. As thou art no longer grievous, Perfect thy work, if it be thy will, Break the web of this sweet encounter. Savouring of everlasting life, And paying the whole debt, By slaying Thou hast changed death into life. Seeing, too, that this sweet flame of love burning within her, each time it touches her makes her as it were glorious with foretaste of glory, so much so that whenever it absorbs and assails her, it seems to be admitting her to everlasting life, and to rend the veil of her mortality, she addresses herself, with a great longing, to the flame, which is the Holy Ghost, and prays Him to destroy her mortal life in this sweet encounter, and bestow upon her in reality what He seems about to give, namely, perfect glory, crying: O living flame of love.

O is the cry of strong desire, and of earnest sup plication, in the way of persuasion. The soul employs in it both senses here, for it magnifies and intimates its great desire, calling upon love to end its mortal life. The work of the Holy Ghost in a soul transformed in His love is this: His interior action within it is to kindle it and set it on fire ; this is the burning of love, in union with which the will loves most deeply, being now one by love with that flame of fire. And thus the soul s acts of love are most precious, and even one of them more meritorious than many elicited not in the state of transformation.

The transformation in love differs from the flame of love as a habit differs from an act, or as the glowing fuel from the flames it emits, the flames being the effect of the fire which is there burning. Hence then we may say of the soul which is trans formed in love, that its ordinary state is that of the fuel in the midst of the fire ; that the acts of such a soul are the flames which rise up out of the fire of love, vehement in proportion to the intensity of the fire of union, and to the rapture and absorption of the will in the flame of the Holy Ghost ; rising like the angel who ascended to God in the flame which consumed the holocaust of Mamie.

Hence then it seems to the soul, as often as the flame breaks forth, causing it to love sweetly with a heavenly dis position, that its life everlasting is begun, and that its acts are divine in God. This is the language in which God addresses purified and stainless souls, namely, words of flre. But those souls whose palate is not healthy, whose desire is after other things, cannot perceive the spirit and life of His words. And therefore the more wonderful the words of the Son of God, the more insipid they are to some who hear them, because of the impurity in which they live.

Peter loved the words of Christ, for he replied, Lord, to whom shall we go? And now when the soul has drawn so near unto God as to be transformed in the flame of love, when the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are in com munion with it, is it anything incredible to say that it has a foretaste though not perfectly, because this life admits not of it of everlasting life in this fire of the Holy Ghost? This is the reason why this flame is said to be a living flame, not because it is not always living, but because its effect is to make the soul live spritually in God, and to be conscious of such a life, as it is written, My heart and my flesh have rejoiced toward the living God.

J The Psalmist makes use of the word living, not because it was necessary, for God is ever-living, but to show that the body and the spirit had a lively feeling of God ; that is the rejoicing in the living God. Thus in this flame, the soul has so vivid a sense of God and a perception of Him so sweet and delicious, that it cries out: O living flame of love!

That is, Thou touchest me tenderly in Thy love. The words of the bride in the Canticle are now fulfilled in the soul. But how can we say that it wounds the soul, when there is nothing to wound, seeing that it is all consumed in the fire of love? It is certainly marvellous ; for as fire is never idle, but in continual movement, flashing in one direction, then in another, so love, the function of which is to wound, so as to cause love and joy, when it exists in the soul as a living flame, darts forth its most tender flames of love, causing wounds, exerting joyously all the arts and wiles of love as in the palace of its wedding feast.

I was delighted every day. This wounding, therefore, which is the playing of divine wisdom, is the flames of those tender touches which touch the soul continually, touches of the fire of love which is never idle. The feast of the Holy Ghost is celebrated in the substance of the soul, which is inaccessible to the devil, the world, and the flesh ; and therefore the more interior the feast, the more secure, substantial, and delicious is it. For the more interior it is, the purer it is ; and the greater the purity, the greater the abundance, frequency, and universality of God s communication of Himself ; and thus the joy of the soul and spirit is so much the greater, for it is God Himself Who is the author of all this, and the soul doeth nothing of itself, in the sense I shall immediately explain.

And inasmuch as the soul cannot work naturally here, nor make any efforts of its own otherwise than through the bodily senses and by their help of which it is in this case completely free, and from which it is most detached the work of the soul is solely to receive what God communicates, Who alone in the depths of the soul, without the help of the senses, can influence and direct it, and operate within it. Thus, then, all the movements of such a soul are divine, and though of God, still they are the soul s, because God effects them within it, itself willing them and assenting to them.

In the first place the soul, regarded as spirit, has neither height nor depth of greater or less de gree in its own nature, as bodies have which have bulk. The soul has no parts, neither is there any difference between its interior and exterior, for it is uniform ; it has no depths of greater or less profundity, nor can one part of it be more enlightened than another, as is the case with physical bodies, for the whole of it is enlightened uniformly at once.

Setting aside this signification of depth, material and measureable, we say that the inmost depth of the soul is there where its being, power, and the force of its action and movement penetrate and cannot go further. Thus fire, or a stone, tend by their natural force to the centre of their sphere, and cannot go beyond it, or help resting there, unless some obstacle intervene.

Accordingly, when a stone lies on the ground it is said to be within its centre, because within the sphere of its active motion, which is the element of earth, but not in the inmost depth of that centre, the middle of the earth, because it has still power and force to descend thither, provided all that hinders it be taken away.

So when it shall have reached the centre of the earth, and is incapable of further motion of its own, we say of it that it is then in its inmost or deepest centre. The centre of the soul is God. This will be when the soul shall love Him, comprehend Him, and enjoy Him with all its strength. When, however, the soul has not attained to this state, though it be in God, Who is the centre of it by grace and communion with Him, still if it can move further and is not satisfied, though in the centre, it is not in the deepest centre, because there is still room for it to advance.

Love unites the soul with God, and the greater its love the deeper does it enter into God, and the more is it centered in Him. According to this way of speaking we may say, that as the degrees of love, so are the centres which the soul finds in God. These are the many man sions of the Father s house.

If we have two degrees of love we shall then have found another centre, more interiorly in God ; and if we have three we shall have reached another and more interior centre still. The soul in this state may be compared to crystal, lucid and pure ; the greater the light thrown upon it, the more luminous it becomes by the concentra tion thereof, until at last it seems to be all light and undistinguishable from it ; it being then so illumined, and to the utmost extent, that it seems to be one with the light itself.

The flame wounds the soul in its inmost depth ; that is, it wounds it when it touches the very depths of its substance, power and force. This expression implies that abundance of joy and bliss, which is the greater and the more tender, the more vehemently and substantially the soul is transformed and centred in God. It greatly surpasses that which occurs in the ordinary union of love, for it is in proportion to the greater heat of the fire of love which now emits the living flame. Thus the soul, feeling that the living flame ministers to it all good divine love brings all blessings with it cries out: O living flame of love, that woundest tenderly.

The cry of the soul is: O kindling burning love, how tenderly dost thou make me glorious by thy loving movements in my greatest power and strength, giving me a divine intelligence according to the capacity of my understand ing, and communicating love according to the utmost freedom of my will ; that is, thou hast elevated to the greatest height, by the divine intelligence, the powers of my understanding in the most intense fervour and sub stantial union of my will.

This ineffable effect then takes place when this flame of fire rushes upwards in the soul. The divine wisdom absorbs the soul which is now purified and most clean profoundly and sublimely in itself ; for wisdom reacheth everywhere by reason of her purity. And as the flame is so sweet, the soul says: Thou dost not afHict, nor vex, nor weary me as before. In order to explain this we must dwell a little on this point. For before the divine fire enters into the soul and unites itself to it in its inmost depth by the complete and perfect purgation and purity thereof, the flame, which is the Holy Ghost, wounds it, destroys and consumes the imperfections of its evil habits.

This is the work of the Holy Ghost, Who thereby disposes the soul for its divine union and a substantial transforma tion in God by love. For the flame which afterwards unites itself to the soul, glorifying it, is the very same which before assailed and purified it ; just as the fire which ultimately penetrates the substance of the fuel is the very same which in the beginning darted its flames around it, playing about it, and depriving it of its ugliness until it prepared it with its heat for its own entrance into it, and transformation of it into itself. The soul suffers greatly in this spiritual exercise, and endures grievous afflictions of spirit which occasion ally overflow into the senses ; for then the flame is felt to be grievous, for in this state of purgation the flame does not burn brightly but is darksome, and if it gives forth any light at all it is only to show to the soul and make it feel all its, miseries and defects ; neither is it sweet but painful, and if it kindles a fire of love that fire causes l6 THE LIVING FLAME [STAN.

I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of His indignation ; He hath led me, and brought me into darkness and not into light. Only against me He hath turned, and turned again His hand all the day. My skin and my flesh He hath made old, He hath broken my bones. He hath built round about me, and He hath encompassed me with gall and labour. He hath set me in dark places, as those that are dead for ever. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: Here then, the heart is laid upon coals to drive away all kind of devils ; f here, too, all its maladies are brought to light, and openly exhibited before the eyes, and thus they are cured.

Whatever may have been hidden within its depths now becomes visible and palp able to the soul by the glare and heat of that fire, for previously nothing could be seen. Thus the soul, near this flame, sees and feels clearly its miseries, because, O wonder! The virtues and properties of God, being in the highest degree perfect, arise and make war within the soul, on the habits and properties of man which are in the highest degree imperfect.

For since this flame gives forth a dazzling light it penetrates the darkness of the soul which, in its way, is profound in the extreme ; the soul now feels its natural darkness oppose the supernatural light, without feeling the supernatural light itself, for the darkness does not comprehend it. For an intense light is to a weak sight, or an eye that is not wholly clear, nothing but darkness, because the excess of light destroys the power of seeing. And as hardness is discovered when con trasted with tenderness, and aridity when compared with love, so the will comes to a knowledge of its own hardness and aridity when contrasted with God, though it does not feel the love and tenderness of the flame, for hardness and aridity cannot comprehend their contraries, until, being expelled by these, the love and tenderness of God reign supreme in the will, for two contraries cannot co exist in one subject.

Similarly, the soul perceives its own smallness in comparison with the immensity of the flame, and suffers great uneasiness until the flame, acting on it, dilates it. Thus, the latter has proved grievous to the will also, for the sweet nourishment of love is in sipid to a palate not yet weaned from other affections.

Finally, the soul, which of itself is exceedingly poor, having nothing whatever, nor the means of procuring any satisfaction, gains a knowledge of its poverty, misery and malice by contrasting them with the riches, goodness and delights possessed by this flame, for malice does not com prehend goodness, nor poverty riches, etc. Here, God Who is all perfection, there the habits of imperfection of the soul ; cauterising it with a Divine fire He extirpates them and leaves a well-prepared soil upon which He may enter with His gentle, peaceful and glorious love, as does a flame when it gets hold of wood.

So powerful a purgation is the lot of but few souls, namely of those whom He intends to lift by contemplation to some degree of union ; the more sublime that degree, the fiercer the purification. When He resolves to snatch a soul from the common way of natural operations and to lead it to the spiritual life, from meditation to con templation which is heavenly rather than earthly life and to communicate Himself by the union of love, He begins by making Himself known to the spirit, as yet impure and imperfect and full of evil habits.

Each one suffers in proportion to his imperfections. This purga tion is sometimes as fierce in its way as that of Purgatory, for the one is meant to dispose the soul for a perfect union even here below, while the other is to enable it to see God hereafter. I shall say nothing here of the intention of this cleansing, the degrees of its intensity, its operation in the will, the understanding and the memory, in the substance of the soul, in all its powers, or in the sensitive part alone, nor how it may be ascertained whether it is this or that, at what time or at which precise point of the [STAN, i.

Thus, the same which now is sweet, being seated within the soul, was at first grievous while assailing it from without. The meaning of the whole is as follows: Thou art now not only not darkness as before, but the divine light of my understanding wherewith I behold Thee: The manuscripts make the matter clear, for St.

John considered the Dark Night as part of the Ascent. Perfect Thy work, if it be Thy will. That is, do Thou perfect the spiritual marriage in the beatific vision. Though it is true that the soul is the more resigned the more it is transformed, when it has attained to a state so high as this, for it knows nothing and seeks nothing with a view to itself, f but only in and for the Beloved for Charity seeks nothing but the good and glory of the Beloved still because it lives in hope, and hope implies a want, it groans deeply though sweetly and joyfully because it has not fully attained to the perfect adoption of the sons of God, in which, being perfected in glory, all its desires will be satisfied.

How ever intimate the soul s union may be with God, it will never be satisfied here below till His glory shall appear ; J especially because it has already tasted, by anticipation, of its sweetness. This desire of the soul is therefore no longer painful, for its condition is now such that all pain is over, and its prayers are offered for the object it desires in great sweetness, joy and resigna tion. Such are now the glimpses of glory, and such the love which now shines forth, that it would argue but little love on its part if it did not pray to be admitted to the perfect consummation of love.

Moreover, the soul in the power of this sweet communication, sees that the Holy Ghost incites it, and invites it in most wonderful ways, and by sweet affections, to this immeasurable glory, which He there sets before it, saying, Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. For winter is now past, the rain is gone and departed. The flowers have appeared in our land. The fig-tree hath brought forth her green figs, the flourishing vineyards have given their savour. That is, the hindrance to this so grand an affair. It is an easy thing to draw near unto God when all hindrances are set aside, and when the web that divides us from Him is broken.

There are three webs to be broken before we can have the perfect fruition of God: The temporal web, which comprises all created things. The natural web, which comprises all mere natural actions and inclinations. The web of sense, which is merely the union of soul and body ; that is, the sensitive and animal life, of which St. These webs were broken in the assaults of this flame when it was still grievous.

In the spiritual purgation the soul breaks the two webs I am speaking of, and becomes united with God ; the third alone, the web of the life of sense remains now to be broken. This is the reason why but one web is mentioned here. For now one web alone remains, and this the flame assails not painfully and grievously as it assailed the others, but with great sweetness and delight. Thus the death of such souls is most full of sweet ness, beyond that of their whole spiritual life, for they die of the sweet violence of love, like the swan which sings more sweetly when death is nigh.

God now permits it to behold its own beauty, and intrusts it with the gifts and graces He has endowed it with, for all this turns into love and praise without the stain of presumption or of vanity, because no leaven of imperfection remains to corrupt it. John saith, profiteth nothing, J but is rather a hindrance to the good of the spirit. The soul, therefore, prays for the dissolution of the body, for it is sad that a life so mean should be a hindrance in the way of a life so noble. This life is called a web for three reasons: Be cause of the connection between the spirit and the flesh.

Because it separates the soul and God. Because a web is not so thick but that light penetrates it. When the power of the life to come is felt in the soul, the weakness of this life becomes manifest. It may be asked here why the soul prays for the breaking of the web rather than for its cutting or its removal, since the effect would be the same in either case.

There are four reasons which determine it: The ex pression it employs is the most proper, because it is more natural that a thing should be broken in an encounter, than that it should be cut or taken away. Because love likes force, with violent and impetuous contacts, and these result in breaking rather than in cutting or taking away.

The power of love is now more concentrated and more vigorous, and the perfection of transforming love enters the soul, as form into matter, in an instant. Until now there was no act of perfect transformation, only the disposition towards it in desires and affections successively repeated, which in very few souls attain to the perfect act of transformation. Hence a soul that is disposed may elicit many more, and more intense acts in a brief period than another soul not so disposed in a long time, for this soul spends all its energies in the preparation of itself, and even afterwards the fire does not wholly penetrate the fuel it has to burn.

But when the soul is already prepared, love enters in continuously, and the spark at the first contact seizes on the fuel that is dry. And thus the enamoured soul prefers the abrupt breaking of the web to its tedious cutting or waiting for its removal. The fourth reason why the soul prays for the breaking of the web of life is its desire that it may be done quickly: Moreover, it knows well that it is the way of God to call such souls to Himself before the time, that He fills them with good, and delivers them from evil, perfecting them in a short space, and bestowing upon them, through love, what they could have gained only by length of time.

Pleasing God, he is made beloved, and living among sinners he was translated. He was taken away lest malice should change his understand ing, or lest any guile deceive his soul. But why is this interior assault of the Holy Ghost called an encounter? Though the soul is very desirous to see the end of its natural life, yet because the time is not yet come, that cannot be, and so God, to make it perfect and to raise it above the flesh more and more, assails it divinely and gloriously, and these assaults are really encounters wherein God penetrates the soul, deifies the very substance of it, and renders it as it were divine.

The whole stanza may be paraphrased as follows: O flame of the Holy Ghost, penetrating so profoundly and so tenderly the very substance of my soul, and burning it with Thy heat, since Thou art now so gentle as to mani fest Thy desire of giving Thyself wholly to me in ever lasting life ; if formerly my petitions did not reach Thine ears, when I was weary and worn with love, suffering through the weakness of sense and spirit, because of my great infirmities, impurity, and little love, I prayed to be set free for with desire hath my soul desired Thee when my impatient love would not suffer me to submit to the conditions of this life according to Thy will for it was Thy will that I should live and when the previous impulses of my love were insufficient in Thy sight, be cause there was no substance in them ; now that I am [STAN, n.

O delicious wound I O tender hand! Savouring of everlasting life, And paying the whole debt, In destroying death Thou hast changed it into life. The burn is the Holy Ghost ; the hand is the Father ; and the touch is the Son. Thus the soul magnifies the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, extolling those three grand gifts and graces which They perfect within it, in that They have changed death into life, transforming it in Themselves. And as His power is infinite, He consumes infinitely, burning with great vehemence, and transforming into Himself all He touches.

But He burns everything according to the measure of its preparation, some more, others less; and also according to His own good plea sure, as, and when, and how, He will. And as this is an infinite fire of love, so when He touches the soul somewhat sharply, the burning heat within it becomes so extreme as to surpass all the fires of the world.

This is the reason why this touch of God is said to be a burn: When the divine fire shall have transformed the soul into itself, the soul not only feels the burn, but itself is become wholly and entirely burnt up in this vehement fire. O how wonderful the fire of God! Thus, on the day of Pentecost the fire descended with great vehemence upon the Apostles, who, according to St. The Church also says, when celebrating that event: This is the reason why it is said to be sweet. It is of that soul that the Apostle said: Intus facta sunt corda flammantia, quia dum Deum in ignis visione susceperunt, per amorem suaviter arserunt.

Advenit ignis divinus, non comburens, sed illuminans. O, the great glory of the souls who are worthy of this supreme fire which, having infinite power to con sume and annihilate you, consumes you not, but makes you infinitely perfect in glory! Wonder not that God should elevate some souls to so high a degree, for He alone is wonderful in His marvellous works. As this burn then is so sweet as it is here said to be how happy must that soul be which this fire has touched!

The soul would speak of it, but cannot, so it says only, O delicious wound. He Who inflicts the wound relieves, and heals while He inflicts it. It bears some resemblance to the caustic usage of natural fire, which when applied to a wound increases it, and renders a wound, which iron or other instruments occasioned, a wound of fire. The longer the caustic is applied, the more grievous the wound, until the whole matter be destroyed, Thus the divine burn of love heals the wound which love has caused, and by each application renders it greater. The healing which love brings is to wound again what was wounded before, until the soul melts away in the fire of love.

So when the soul shall become wholly one wound of love it will then be transformed in love, wounded with love. For herein he who is most wounded is the most healthy, and he who is all wound is all health. And yet even if the whole soul be one wound, and consequently sound, the divine burning is not inter mitted ; it continues its work, which is to wound the soul with love.

The Holy Ghost in flicted the wound that He might soothe it, and as His will and desire to soothe it are great, great will be the wound which He will inflict, in order that the soul He has wounded may be greatly comforted. O blessed wound inflicted by Him Who cannot but heal it! O happy and most blessed wound! For thou art inflicted only for the joy and comfort of the soul. Great is the wound, because He is great Who has wrought it ; and great is the delight of it: O delicious wound then, and the more delicious the more the burn of love penetrates the inmost sub stance of the soul, burning all it can burn that it may supply all the delight it can give.

This burning and wound, in my opinion, are the highest condition attain able in this life. There are many other forms of this burning, but they do not reach so far, neither are they like unto this: But the soul is burned in another and most ex cellent way, which is this: Then when the burning brand touches it, the soul feels that the wound it has thus received is delicious beyond all imagination.

For beside being altogether moved or stirred, at the time of this stirring of the fire, by the vehement movement of the seraph, wherein the ardour and the melting of love is great, it feels that its wound is perfect, and that the herbs which serve to attemper the steel are efficacious ; it feels the very depths of the spirit transpierced, and its delight to be exquisite beyond the power of language to express. It feels its love to grow, strengthen, and refine itself to such a degree, as to seem to itself as if seas of fire were in it filling it with love.

The fruition of the soul now cannot be described otherwise than by saying that it understands why the kingdom of heaven is compared in the gospel to a mus tard seed, which by reason of its great natural heat grows into a lofty tree. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field.

Few souls, however, attain to this state, but some have done so, especially those whose spirit and power is to be transmitted to their spiritual children ; since God bestows on the founder gifts and graces, according to the succession of the order in the first-fruits of the Spirit. To return to the work of the seraph, which in.

Thus it was with St. Francis, for when the seraph wounded his soul with love, the effects of that wound became outwardly visible. God confers no favours on the body which He does not confer in the first place chiefly on the soul. In that case, the greater the joy and violence of the love which is the cause of the interior wound, the greater will be the pain of the visible wound, and as the former grows so does the latter. The reason is this: It is thus a most marvellous thing to feel pain and sweetness together.

Job felt it when he said, Returning, Thou tormentest me wonder fully. O Infinite greatness, in all things showing Thy self omnipotent. Who, O Lord, can cause sweetness in the midst of bitterness, and pleasure in the midst of pain? O delicious wound, the greater the delight the deeper the wound. This I say for the sake of those who think they can ascend to the heights and power of the spirit, by the mere energy and action of the senses, which are mean and vile.

We cannot become spiritual unless the bodily sense be restrained. It is a state of things wholly different from this, when the spirit overflows into the senses, for there may be great spirituality in this ; as in the case of St. Paul, whose deep sense of the sufferings of Christ overflowed into his body, so that he said ; I bear the marks of our Lord Jesus in my body.

Upon me Thou art laid so softly, so lovingly, and so tenderly ; Thou art the more gentle and sweet for me than thou wert hard for him ; the loving sweetness with which Thou art laid upon me is greater than the severity with which he was touched. Thou killest, and Thou givest life, and there is no one who shall escape out of Thy hand. But Thou, O divine life, never killest but to give life, as Thou never woundest but to heal. Thou hast wounded me, O divine hand! Thou hast slain in me that which made me dead, and without the life of God which I now live.

O blessed soul, most blessed, which Thou, who art so terrible and so strong, touchest so gently. O my God and my life, they shall know Thee J and behold Thee when Thou touchest them, who, making themselves strangers upon earth, shall purify them selves, because purity corresponds with purity. O, again and again, gentle touch, which by the, power of its tenderness, undoest the soul, removest it far away from every touch whatever, and makest it Thine own ; Thou which lea vest behind Thee effects and impressions so pure, that the touch of everything else seems vile and low, the very sight offensive; and all relations therewith a deep affliction.

The more subtile any matter is, the more it spreads and fills, and the more it diffuses itself the more subtile is it. O gentle touch, the more subtile the more infused. And now the vessel of my soul, because Thou hast touched it, is pure and clean and able to receive Thee. Finally then, O gentle touch, and most gentle, for Thou touchest me with Thy most simple and pure essence, which being infinite is infinitely gentle ; there fore it is that this touch is so subtile, so loving, so deep, and so delicious.

Savouring of everlasting life. What the soul tastes now in this touch of God, is, in truth, thoiigh not perfectly, a certain foretaste of everlasting life, as I said before. Many Saints have experienced it in this life. The sweetness of delight which this touch occasions baffles all description. Neither will I speak of it, lest men should suppose that it is nothing beyond what my words imply, for there are no terms by which we can designate or explain the deep things of God transacted in perfect souls.

The proper way to speak of them is for him who has been favoured with them to understand them, feel them, and enjoy them, and be silent. For the soul now sees that they are in some measure like the white counter of which it is written To him that overcometh I will give Now as God is all this, the soul tastes of all in one single touch of God in a certain eminent way.

And from this good bestowed upon the soul, some of the unction of the Spirit overflows at times into the body itself, penetrating into the very bones, as it is written, All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like unto Thee? And paying the whole debt. But what debts are they to which the soul here refers, and which it declares to be paid or satisfied? We should know that souls which attain to this high state, to the kingdom of I the spiritual betrothal, have in general passed through many tribulations and trials, because it is through many tribulations that we enter into the kingdom of heaven.

And these tribulations are now passed. The reason is that the joy and knowledge of God cannot be established in the soul, if the flesh and spirit are not perfectly purified and spiritualised, and as trials and penances purify and refine the senses, as tribulations, temptations, darkness and distress spiritualise and prepare the spirit, so they must undergo them who would be transformed in God as the souls in purgatory who through that trial attain to the beatific vision some more intensely than others, some for a longer, others for a shorter time, according to those degrees of union to which God intends to raise them, and according to their need of purification.

Iron cannot be fashioned according to the pattern of the artificer but by fire and the hammer, and during the process its previous condition is injured. This is the way in which God taught Jeremias, From on high He hath cast a fire in my bones and hath taught me. Here comes the question, why is it that so few ever attain to this state? The reason is that, in this marvellous work which God Himself begins, so many are weak, shrinking from trouble, and unwilling to endure the least discomfort or mortification, or to labour with constant patience.

Hence it is that God, not finding them diligent in cultivating the graces He has given them when He began to try them, proceeds no further with their purification, neither does He lift them up out of the dust of the earth, because it required greater courage and resolution for this than they possessed. Thus it may be said to those who desire to advance, but who will not endure a lighter trial nor submit themselves thereto, in the words of Jeremias, If with running with footmen thou hast laboured how canst thou contend with horses? O souls that seek your own ease and comfort, if you knew how necessary for this high state is suffering, and how profitable suffering and mortification are for attaining to these great blessings, you would never seek for comfort anywhere, but you would rather take up the cross with the vinegar and the gall, and would count it an inestimable favour, knowing that by thus dying to the world and to your own selves, you would live to God in spiritual joy ; in the patient endurance of your exterior afflictions you would merit at the hands of God, that He should look upon you, cleanse and purify you more and more in these spiritual tribulations.

The same truth is exemplified in the life of Job. God acknowledged him as His faithful servant in the presence of the angels good and evil, and immediately sent him heavy trials, that He might afterwards raise him higher, as He did, both in temporal and spiritual things, f This is the way God deals with those whom it is His will to exalt. It is not necessary I should stop here to say how each of these purgations tends to the divine wisdom, which in this life is as silver, for however pure it may be, yet is not comparable to the pure gold, which is reserved for everlasting glory.

Thus, interior trials and tribulations destroy and purge away the imperfect and evil habits of the soul. We are, therefore, to count it a great favour when our Lord sends us interior and exterior trials, remembering that they are few in number who deserve to be made perfect through sufferings so as to attain to so high a state as this.

I return to the explanation of the words before me. Thus the soul which once stood without at the gates of the palace of God like Mardochai weeping in the streets of Susan because his life was threatened, clothed with sackcloth and refusing the garments which Esther sent him, unrewarded for his faithful service in defending the king s honour and life, f finds, also, like Mardochai, all its trials and service rewarded in one day.

It is not only admitted within the palace and stands in royal robes before the king, but has also a diadem on its head, and in its hand a sceptre, and sitting on the royal throne with the king s signet on its finger, symbols of its power in the kingdom of the Bridegroom. For those souls who attain to this high state obtain all their desires ; the whole debt is amply paid: Death is nothing else but the privation of life, for when life cometh there is no trace of death in that which is spiritual.

There are two kinds of life, one beatific, consisting in the vision of God, and this must be preceded by a natural and bodily death, as it is written, We know if our earthly house of this habitation be dis solved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven. Men attain to this through the mortifica tion of their evil habits and desires. By death here is meant the old man, that is the employment of our faculties, memory, understanding, and will, upon the things of this world, and the desire on the pleasure which created things supply.

All this is the old life ; it is the death of the new life which is spiritual, and which the soul cannot live perfectly unless to the old man it be perfectly dead, for so the Apostle teaches, when he bids us put away according to the old conversation, the old man. And as everything that lives, to use the expression of philosophers, lives in its acts, so the soul, having its acts in God by virtue of its union with Him, lives the life of God, its death being changed into life.

This is so, because the understanding, which, previous to its union with God, understood but dimly by means of its natural light, is now under the influence and direction of another principle, and of a higher illumination of God. The will, which previously loved but weakly, is now changed into the life of divine love, for now it loves deeply with the affections of divine love, moved by the Holy Ghost in whom it now lives.

The desire, which previously longed for created food, now tastes and relishes the food that is divine, influenced by another and more efficacious principle, the sweetness of God. This is accomplished in the perfect state of the spiritual life, but not so perfectly as in the other ; hence is it well said: While slaying thou hast changed death into life.

The soul, therefore, has good reason for saying with St. The soul being thus swallowed up of life, detached from all secular and temporal things, and delivered from the disorderliness of nature, is led into the chamber of the King, where it rejoices and is glad in the Beloved, remembering His breasts more than wine, and saying, I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, If for my natural blackness is changed into the beauty of the heavenly King.

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IL] OF LOVE 55 infinitely burning above all other fires, O how infinitely beyond aD other fires dost thou burn me, and the more thou burnest the sweeter thou art to me. Thou art infinitely more precious than gold and precious stones, for thou payest debts which nothing else can pay, because thou changest marvellously death into life. In this state of life, so perfect, the soul is, as it were, keeping a perpetual feast with the praises of God in its mouth, with a new song of joy and love, full of the knowledge of its high dignity.

Thou hast cut niy sackcloth and hast compassed me with gladness, that my glory may sing to Thee, and I be not compunct for this state is inaccessible to pain Lord my God, for ever will I confess to Thee. Here the soul is so conscious of God s solicitude to comfort it, feeling that He is Himself encouraging it with words so precious, so tender, so endearing ; that He is conferring graces upon it, one upon another, so that it seems as if there were no other soul in the world for Him to comfort, no other object of His care, but that every thing was done for this one soul alone.

In this stanza the soul most heartily thanks the Bridegroom for the great mercies which, in the state of union, it has received at His hands, for He has given therein a manifold and most profound knowledge of Himself, which enlightens its powers and senses, and fills them with love. These powers, previous to the state of union, were in darkness and blindness, but are now illumined by the fires of love and respond thereto, offering that very light and love to Him who has kindled and inspired them by infusing into the soul gifts so divine.

For he who truly loves is satisfied then when his whole self, all he is, all he can be, all he has, and all he can acquire, is spent in the service of his love ; and the greater that service the greater is his pleasure in giving it. Such is the joy of the soul now, because it can shine in the pre sence of the Beloved in the splendours with which He has surrounded it, and love Him with that love which He has communicated to it.

Lamps have two properties, that of giving light and of burning. He is omnipotent, wise, good, merciful, just, strong, loving ; He is all the other attributes and perfections of which we have no knowledge here below. He is all this. When the soul is in union with Him, and He is pleased to admit it to a special knowledge of Himself, the soul sees in Him all these perfections and majesty together in the one and simple essence clearly and distinctly, so far as it is con sistent with the faith, and as each one of these attributes is the very being of God, Who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost as each attribute is God Himself and as God is infinite light, and infinite divine fire, it follows that each attribute gives light and burns as God Himself.

God therefore, according to this knowledge of Him in unity, is to the soul as many lamps, because it has the knowledge of each of them, and because they minister to it the warmth of love, each in its own way, and yet all of one substance, all one lamp. This lamp is all lamps, because it gives light, and burns, in all ways. The soul seeing this, the one lamp is to it as many lamps, for though but one, it can do all things, and has all power and comprehends every spirit.

And thus it may be said that the one lamp shines and burns many ways in one: The splendour of the lamp as omnipotent gives to the soul the light and warmth of the love of God as omnipotent, and accordingly God is now the lamp of omnipotence to the soul, shining and burning according to that attribute. The splendour of the lamp as wisdom produces the warmth of the love of God as all wise, and so of the other attributes ; for the light which emanates from each of the attributes of God and from all the others, produces in the soul the fire of the love of God as such.

Thus God is to the soul in these communications and manifestations 6f Himself they are, I think, the highest possible in this life as innumer able lamps from which light and love proceed. These lamps revealed Him to Moses on Mount Sinai, where God passed before Him, and where Moses fell prostrate on the earth in all haste. He mentions some of the perfections of God which he then saw, and, loving Him in them, speaks of them separately in the following words: It follows from this that the joy and rapture of love communicated to the soul in the fire of the light of these lamps is admirable, and immeasurable: If a great and darksome horror seized upon Abram as he saw one lamp of fire passing f before him, when he learned with what rigorous justice God was about to visit the Chananeans, shall not the lamps of the knowledge of God shining now sweetly and lovingly produce greater light and joy of love than that one lamp produced of horror and darkness, when it passed before Abram?

For he who loves and does good to another honours him and does him good according to his own nature and qualities. Thus the Bridegroom abiding in thee, being all-powerful, gives Himself to thee, and loves thee with all power ; being wise, with wisdom ; being good, with goodness ; being holy, with holiness. And as He is liberal thou wilt feel also that He loves thee with liberality, without self-interest, only to do thee good, showing joyfully His countenance full of grace, and saying: I am thine and for thee, and it is My pleasure to be what I am, that I may give Myself to thee and be thine.

Who then shall describe thy feeling, O blessed soul, when thus beloved, and so highly honoured? Thy belly as a heap of wheat compassed about with lilies. Thy joy will now be so marvellously complete, because the words of the Psalmist are accomplished in thee: The soul is now overflowing with the divine waters, which run from it as from an abundant fountain unto everlasting life.

Thus, though they are lamps of fire, they are also the living waters of the spirit. Those which descended on the Apostles, though lamps of fire, were also waters pure and limpid, according to the words of Ezechiel who thus prophesied the descent of the Holy Ghost: So in like manner the Spirit of God, while hidden in the veins of the soul, is sweet water quenching its spiritual thirst ; but when the soul offers the sacrifice of love, the Spirit is then living flames of fire, and these are the lamps of the acts of love which the bride spoke of in the Canticle when she said, The lamps thereof lamps of fire and flames.

If we consider that the soul is now transformed in God, we shall in some measure understand how it is true that it is also become a fountain of living waters boiling and bubbling upwards in the fire of love which is God. I have already said that these splendours are the communications of the divine lamps in which the soul in union shines with its powers, memory, understand ing, and will, enlightened and united in this loving know ledge.

The soul therefore may be said to resemble the air which is burning within the flame and transformed in fire, for the flame is nothing else but air inflamed. The flickerings of the flame are not those of air only or of fire only, but of air and fire together ; and the fire causes the air which is within to burn. It is thus that the soul with its powers is illumined in the splendours of God. The movements of the flame, that is its vibrations and its flickerings, are not the work of the soul only, transformed in the fire of the Holy Ghost, nor of the Holy Ghost only, but of the soul and of the Holy Ghost together Who moves the soul as the fire moves the air that is burning.

Thus, then, these movements of God and of the soul together are as it were the acts of God by which He renders the soul glorious. In the same way the movements of the Holy Ghost, though full of fire and most effectual to absorb the soul in great bliss, do not accomplish their work until the time is come when it is to sally forth from the sphere of the air of this mortal life and reach the centre of the spirit, the perfect life in Christ.

These visions of the glory of God, to which the soul is now admitted, are more continuous than they used to be, more perfect and more stable ; but in the life to come they will be most perfect, unchanging, and uninterrupted. There, too, the soul will see clearly how that God, though here ap pearing to move within it, yet in Himself moves not at all, as the fire moves not in its sphere. These splendours are inestimable graces and favours which God bestows upon the soul. They are called also overshado wings, and are, in my opinion, the greatest and the highest graces which can be bestowed in this life in the way of transformation.

The shadow of every object partakes of the nature and proportions of it, for if the object be dense, the shadow will be dense and dark ; if it be light and clear, so will be the shadow, as we see in the case of wood or crystal: In spiritual things, too, death is the privation of all things, so the shadow of death will be darkness, which in a manner deprives us of all things. The shadow of life is light, if divine, a divine light, and if the shadow be human, the light is natural, and so the shadow of beauty will be as another beauty according to the nature and properties of that beauty of which it is the shadow.

The shadow of strength will be as another strength, in measure and proportion. This, then, being so, what must be the shadow of the Holy Ghost, the shadow of all His power, might, and attributes, when He is so near the soul? He touches the soul not with His shadow only, for He unites Him self to it, feeling and tasting with it the form and attributes of God in the shadow of God: All this takes place in clear and luminous shadows, because the attributes and powers of God are lamps, which, being resplendent and luminous in their own nature, throw forth shadows resplendent and luminous, and a multitude of them in one sole essence.

O what a vision for the soul when it shall ex perience the power of that which Efcechiel saw: Here the soul rejoices in the glory of God, under the protec tion of His shadow, for the prophet adds: O how it marvels at the visions it has within the limits of the faith!

I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world. The small and momentary sufferings we have experienced in the past did not eliminate us from the race. Thus we can gather courage from having made it this far by faith. In a similar vein, John discusses temptation as a schoolmaster allowed by God to strengthen the believer on the path of love. Thus temptations, too, can be welcomed. They transmit light and give off warmth. Thus we can see that holiness comes from God, and not from us. In prayer, we are communing with love itself.

If we stay there often enough, we become more loving. It does even more than illumine the soul from the inside. They are like happy festivals and games that the Holy Spirit plays together with us. Who can express how elevated this happy soul feels here, how exalted, how much admired in holy beauty. The depths of our being are like caverns. If these faculties are not emptied of all their affections, they do not feel the vast emptiness of their deep capacity.

Then they can easily become bewitched and burdened by any little thing, even though they are capable of infinite goods. My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. John spends a considerable amount of space 40 paragraphs offering advise about three blind guides. The first blind guide is the spiritual director; the second is the Devil; the third is the soul itself. We could loose our progress or even fall back.

We can draw comfort from the fact that. He acts as guide of the blind. The first blind guide is the spiritual director. A suitable spiritual director will be learned, discreet and experienced. The director should be sensitive to where God has brought souls to and guide them accordingly. Directors should strive to bring souls out of meditation and into solitude and idleness.

The second blind guide is the devil. The devil can lead the soul astray by moving it back to meditative prayer or to the desire for feelings in prayer.

St. John of the Cross – Living Flame of Love, My Soul is a Candle – Discerning Hearts

He can do greater damage simply by leading these souls away from contemplation than he can by greatly harming other souls. The third blind guide is the ourselves. He creates a road map of spirituality. The last comment John provides in this line of the poem concerns the deep caverns. But now the Holy Spirit is burning within the deep caverns of our feeling. Now that the caverns of the faculties are pervaded with the lamps that are burning within them, they give to God the very splendors they have received from him. All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

John calls souls to cultivate a desire for God that eclipses all other desires. John says to proceed only with a loving attentiveness to God, until the soul is conscious of being placed in solitude and in the state of listening. Then they should even forget the practice of loving attentiveness.

This state can be recognized in that it always comes to pass with a certain peace and calm and inward absorption. This is because pure contemplation lies in receiving. We wait in reverent expectation. The Fourth Stanza addresses two admirable effects that the Bridegroom sometimes produces within us:. John is speaking of those delights.

It yields grandeur and dominion, glory and intimate sweetness. It seems that all the fragrant spices and flowers of the world yield their sweet fragrance together. Likewise, when God moves and awakens us, it seems that it was God who moved and awakened. Nonetheless, this experience is so powerful that it is entirely beyond words. John says that God dwells secretly within all people, both saint and sinner, as the metaphysical ground of their being.

But here, there is a vast difference. He dwells there in secret and pure embrace, unchallenged by inordinate appetites.

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God the Father is breathing the Holy Spirit into the soul. This happens to the extent that the soul is able to understand and know the Father. This breathing of the Holy Spirit absorbs the soul profoundly in the Holy Spirit. John points out the dilemma faced by those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. They are called to live an active life, yet they would prefer to be still. We have seen this in a few isolated individuals. The loftiest experiences of even the greatest mystics are but a weak foretaste of that which is yet to come. Now the soul feels that it is inflamed in union with God.

From its depths flow rivers of living water. The world of contemplative and unitive prayer uses some very specialized terminology. Not all the authors use those terms to mean the same thing. Even an individual author uses them to mean different things in different contexts. John of the Cross is like that. A deep love communion with the Triune God. We cannot produce this; we can only receive it.

It is a wordless awareness and a love that we cannot initiate or produce ourselves. It can be described by its effects: It cannot be figured out; it cannot be understood fully. A passive experience of recollection. A drawing of the faculties gently inward. The recollection achieved at the cost of human effort is different than this. A deeper form of infused recollection, in which the will finds rest but the intellect continues to move. The heart is held, but the mind and the imagination are free to wander. There is a quiet, deep and peaceful happiness in the will. The soul has a certitude that it was in God and God was in it.

Also called ecstatic union or absorption. God gives the soul raptures that draw it out of itself. During this experience, the soul is without outward consciousness and can no longer communicate with the outside world. An increase of the betrothal that culminates in an intellectual vision of the Most Holy Trinity. John of the Cross. Griffin, Emilie, editor, and Farrington, Tim, translator. Image Books Doubleday, Ignatius, , page Paulist Press, , page The sinners in Zion are afraid.

The Living Flame Of Love

Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain. I was given a great gift. It is to be passionate about Jesus Christ and the Bible and the spiritual life. I am a Christian believer. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe the Bible. I love the Bible.